Covelli Seizes Opportunity with 2nd Boardman Panera
BOARDMAN, Ohio -- Growth along the southern Market Street corridor here provides a “great opportunity” for Covelli Enterprises’ second Panera Bread Bakery-Café in the township, owner Sam Covelli says.
Covelli Enterprises opened its newest Panera Bread Tuesday morning at Southwoods Commons, a few miles from where the Warren-based company opened its first Panera Bread in the township’s Shops at Boardman Park. The bakery-café’s opening and acquisition of the Dayton market will bring the number of Covelli-operated Paneras to about 270, Covelli reports.
It is the ninth store in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys.
“I was excited to be able to open another store in our area in the Valley and this seemed to be a really hot area right now,” Covelli said. Citing hospital and medical growth, increasing traffic counts along the corridor and proximity to the Southern Park Mall, “It’s just a great opportunity. There’s going to be constant growth here,” he said.
The new café, like the Niles location that opened about four years ago, features a drive-thru. Its patio seats 45 patrons and another 100 can sit inside, said Allen Ryan, director of corporate affairs for Covelli Enterprises.
“It’s the newest look for Panera so we’re glad to have it here,” Covelli said.
The company will take over operations of the 11 Panera stores in the Dayton market it purchased in September, leaving just Cincinnati and Toledo Paneras not operated by Covelli. “Who knows, down the line maybe we can have all of Ohio,” he remarked.
Among the options available now for Panera customers is online ordering, through Panera’s website or the new mobile application, or app, which went online about a month ago, Covelli reported.
Use of the app is “growing every day,” he said. “Every day it seems like it’s almost doubled from when we started.”
The new Boardman restaurant served more than 1,500 customers from when it opened at 5:30 a.m. until noon, Ryan said.
“We’re very busy but [it’s been] fun,” said Kelly Haren, general manager, who served as assistant manager at the Shops at Boardman Park location for nine years.
Retiree John Fleece of Boardman, a longtime Panera customer, said he likes the new café, which is in a more convenient location. “It’s very nice, very well laid out,” he commented.
Another township resident, Connie Spin, was out with her three children “celebrating the last week of summer before starting back to school.” She also finds the location convenient.
“I have children and it’s easier to go through a drive-thru when you have children than to lug them inside,” she said. It is also convenient for people like her husband, who commutes to Pittsburgh for work.
“This will be easy for him to come in and get his drink,” she said.
Pictured: Sam Covelli, CEO of Covelli Enterprises, outside his company's new Panera Bread store on Market Street in Boardman.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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